Berlin Jewish Museum to expand

NEW YORK (JTA) — The Jewish Museum in Berlin will expand by converting a flower market.

Daniel Libeskind, the museum’s New York-based architect, will extend the museum to create space for a library, archives and education projects in a $13.2 million project (10 million euro), according to a statement from Culture Minister Bernd Neumann.

The German government will provide 60 percent of the financing, with the rest coming from private sponsors including the American Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin, the museum said. The museum, the German government and the state of Berlin agreed on the financing Wednesday, Bloomberg reported on its Web site.

The conversion of the flower market will begin in 2010, Neumann said. The Jewish Museum, which opened in 2001 and now attracts more than 750,000 visitors annually, said it has no plans to pull down the original building.

“The extension has become necessary because of the growing number of tasks the Jewish Museum faces in the area of education and research,” the museum said in a statement. “The goal is to create one of the most important research and education centers for the history and culture of German-speaking Judaism.”

Marc Brodsky is JTA's copy editor. Prior to joining JTA in 2006, he served 15 years as the assistant managing editor at The New York Jewish Week. He also has worked as a reporter and editor in news and sports for daily and weekly newspapers in New Jersey.